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MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year

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MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year

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Now worth $200 million, Sarah Jessica Parker credits being ‘one of eight kids that struggled financially’ for her hunger, ambition, and work ethic

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Ikea’s billionaire founder was so frugal that he bought clothes from flea markets and took free salt and pepper from restaurants
Leadership

Here’s What Economic Pundits Said on Twitter About the Vice Presidential Debate

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George Mannes
George Mannes
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Money
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George Mannes
George Mannes
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October 5, 2016, 3:44 AM ET
US-VOTE-DEBATE
Democratic candidate for Vice President Tim Kaine (L) and Republican candidate for Vice President Mike Pence gesture during the vice presidential debate at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia on October 4, 2016. / AFP / Jewel SAMAD (Photo credit should read JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)Photograph by Jewel Samad—AFP/Getty Images
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This article originally appeared on Money.com.

As Indiana governor Mike Pence and Virginia senator Tim Kaine clashed during Tuesday night’s debate, economists and economic pundits of various political stripes took shots at what the two vice-presidential candidates had to say about jobs, Social Security, and the overall economy. Here are some of the highlights:

Moderator Elaine Quijano of CBSNews started off discussion of the economy by citing a government watchdog’s report: “According to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, neither of your economic plans will reduce the growing $19 trillion gross national debt. In fact, your plans would add even more to it.”

In response to Kaine’s and Pence’s dispute over whose plan would be better for balancing the federal judgment, here was the tweet from…that very same Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:

.@timkaine is right. Trump would increase debt much more than Clinton. #debates https://t.co/mkLmfHyB6j #debates pic.twitter.com/oEzCpVrYqD

— CRFB.org (@BudgetHawks) October 5, 2016

Also at issue was Social Security: How can the system—a linchpin of retirement for most American senior citizens—be saved?

Adam Brandon, president of the free-enterprise, anti-big-government group FreedomWorks, took issue with Democrat Kaine’s defense of Social Security which he called “one of the greatest programs that the American government has ever done,” adding “Social Security has enabled people to retire with dignity and overwhelmingly not be in poverty.”

@timkaine is lying about SS. Giving people choice over their own lives and retirement gives them dignity. #VPDebate

— Adam Brandon (@adam_brandon) October 5, 2016

MIT professor Simon Johnson, former chief economist for the International Monetary Fund, objected to Pence’s evasions in response to Kaine’s criticism of his past support for privatizing Social Security:

Now Mike Pence is close to lying about his record on social security — he wanted to privatize it, was to the right of George W Bush on this

— Simon Johnson (@baselinescene) October 5, 2016

Pence had support the free-market advocacy group Club for Growth, though:

"We will never ever engage in a risky scheme to privatize social security." Well, you should, @timkaine https://t.co/x2GcgghnMt

— Club for Growth (@club4growth) October 5, 2016

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